Project Pachyderm
by Merrie Khriste Masse
Summary: Centered around my character, Eletron. At first, it's all about her time with the herd her beast mode is based on, then eventually she enters into the fray of the Beast Wars.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

* * *

Out beyond the stratosphere of ancient Earth, several Maximal protoform stasis pods slowly orbited the planet. Occasionally one of the stasis pods would make its decent and usually crash landed on the planet's surface. Whenever that happened, usually one if not both of the grounded space ships on the planet would detect the stasis pod's trajectory and inform the ships' inhabitants of a possible incoming new member of the Beast Wars that was currently happening on the planet. By all technicalities, the resulting protoform would become a member of the Maximals, although there had been a number of times where the Predicons had reached the stasis pod first and altered the core coding to cause the protoform to become another member of their nefarious group.

One such stasis pod landed on the planet without either faction initially finding out about it. Why it happened, no one was quite sure. Perhaps neither ship had any bot on board when the signal was detected. Or perhaps a rogue solar flare interfered with both ships' sensors. Whatever the reason, after the protoform stasis pod landed, the sensory antenna went up, scanned the local and picked a nearby elephant herd as the most suitable organic form for the Maximal within.

At first sight of the emerging Maximal, the herd backed away in nervous concern. Even when the Maximal transformed herself into her beast mode, they kept their distance, though they appeared to be less skittish.

Time would be the only teller as to whether the herd would accept this robot-in-pachyderm-disguise, to say the very least.


	2. Chapter 1

**Eletron's Log**  
 _Supplemental_

 _The herd is still cautious of me, more-so when I'm in my regular form. But little by little, they're warming up to me. Their leader is female, a matriarch of sorts. It seems that she'll have the ultimate say if I join the herd or not. I can only hope that I'll eventually be allowed to join. If not, it's going to be a long lonely road I travel._

 _There's still no indication that any other Cybertronian, whether Maximal, Predicon or somebot otherwise affiliated is on this planet, much-less which planet this one actually is._

* * *

"Hmm?" a lone Predicon looked down at one of his many drones as it approached him. Picking the drone up and placing it on a cleared panel of his cave-turned-laboratory, the Predicon eagerly awaited to see what the drone had to report. Within a nano-klik, the drone plugged into the nearest port and brought up images for its creator to view. "Oh, ho... another Maximal stasis pod had landed and no one's picked up on it, hmm? This shall be a very interesting venture indeed!"

Chortling to himself, Tarantulas transformed into his beast mode and sped off to the latest landing site of a stasis pod.

* * *

 _'Programming block deleted,'_ an internal voice resonated within Eletron's core processor, moments before she raised her trunk and released a trumpeting elephantine call.

"Ah, that's better." Eletron sighed. Having felt like she was stuck staying in beast mode more often than not due to the staggering amount of energon this planet had, the Maximal decided that it was necessary to get rid of the programming block that inhibited the very urges that her beast mode would be inherent to as a member of the pachyderm species. Rather than risk going crazy when robot programming and elephant nature collided & clashed for dominance, Eletron was all in favor of both sides working together.

Sighing again, she blinked her beast mode eyes open and looked at the herd before her. Removing the block had actually taken place half a deca-cycle ago. With little else that she could do - forcing herself into the elephant herd wasn't her way of getting along with the local populace - Eletron randomly replayed a memory or two. There was only so much that she could do to the stasis pod with the limited tools she had available. What she could do, was already done. What couldn't be put to use, wound up being hidden under a pile of boulders for the time being.

Lost in her thoughts, the Maximal didn't hear the incoming sound of wheels tearing up the dirt and gravel until the shiny metallic arachnid screeched his wheels to a halt and transformed into robot mode. Taken aback, Eletron blinked a few times and focused on the present situation before her. She wasn't sure what kind of customization this... _Cybertronian_... had, having never known a bot, no matter the faction, to have it, much less knowing about the change that some had to transmetal forms. She wasn't even sure which faction this newcomer was, but in the next few moments, she heard him mutter about finding the stasis pod and getting off this forsaken planet. The following cackle made her shudder internally. His vibes gave her the impression that he had to be a Predicon.

Before she knew it, a male youth from the elephant herd became a bit too curious for his own good and took it upon himself to investigate the newcomer.

"Slag it all! He's going to get himself hurt, if not killed." Eletron muttered to herself.

Silently heading in the direction of the scene before her, she heard an almost indistinguishable rumbling noise from the rest of the herd. It was as if they were trying to warn the wayward youth to get away from the foreign anomaly that was the searching Predicon, while at the same time she picked up on a plea for her to help get the youth back to the herd.

"Consider it done," she said more to herself as she continued forward.

"Well, well," the Predicon chortled as he turned to face the elephant that hadn't even had his tusks beginning to grow as of yet. "Welcome to my lair said the spider to the oh-so-succulent pachyderm."

Stepping away from the buried stasis pod, the Predicon virtually salivated as he headed for the young elephant.

"Yes, it _is_ better to work on a non-empty stomach," the Predicon continued.

"Eletron, maximize." the pachyderm Maximal uttered quietly, activating the transformation into robot mode. Within yards of the Predicon, Eletron reached behind herself for her ivory tusk-like pair of blades. "Hey, Spider-bot! Leave him be."

"What?" Startled, the Predicon's optics widened as he partially turned around to face the new Maximal.

"Are your audio receptors malfunctioning? I said leave him be!"

"Perhaps I shall..." came his response. "For the right price."

"What would I have that you'd want?" Eletron was confused for all of a few a few nano-kliks, then the realization hit her with the force of a meteor crash landing into a planet. "Oh, for booting up cold! My stasis pod is non-negotiable."

The young elephant chose that moment to try and get closer to the two robot-mode transformers and gave a low trumpeting sound.

"Young one, get back!" Eletron urged the pachyderm youth. The warning stopped the elephant in his tracks at the very least.

Within the time it took her to speak with a brief glance at the young elephant, Tarantulas whipped out his own weapon, point it at the elephant and began to chortle once more.

"So, you have a soft spot for the local populous, hmm? Let's see what happens when they get a dose of cyber venom." Tarantulas pulled the trigger on his weapon sending a glowing projectile towards the way-ward elephant.

"No!" Eletron dove into the line of fire with her swords crossed in front of her to deflect the projectile.

As it hit her swords, a portion of the projectile slid past them and slammed into her upper right arm. With a pained yelp, she struggled to right herself before standing up again. If her hands weren't already full, Eletron would have rubbed her now aching arm. Instead, she released a compressed air blast from her mini-trunk cannon, knocking the Predicon over and leaving a sizable dent in his chest plating.

"Let's start over, shall we," Eletron suggested as he got back up. "The name's Eletron. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

 _As if I didn't already know._

"I am Tarantulas." the Predicon replied, mentally debating on how much to reveal. "The stasis pod that you emerged from would be the perfect means for my escaping this Pit forsaken planet."

"There's something you're not telling me. I can smell it like an over-ripe dung heap."

"How perceptive." Tarantulas chuckled deviously. "But my information doesn't come cheap."

"I'm not usually prone to repeat myself but my stasis pod as a whole is non-negotiable and would be worth more than all the information your datatrax contain. I might consider a few parts if it isn't used against me - including this herd of elephants - nor anywhere in my vicinity."

 _Too easy,_ Tarantulas mentally grinned. "Is that all?"

"Tell me what you plan to do once you set up what I'm willing to part with."

"Depending on what I've got to work with, I could upgrade my laboratory, spy on Predicon and Maximal alike - sans you of course!"

The last part of his sentence came out rather rushed as before he knew it, Eletron had one of her swords dangerously close to his neck, while the other one scratched a jagged line below the freshly created dent in his chest plating.

"You better be keeping your word on that, especially that last part." Eletron eased away from Tarantulas, and warily walked over to where she buried her stasis pod.

"I may have lied to plenty of 'bots before, created cyber venom which wreaked havoc to foe and supposed _'friend'_ alike and caused undue mayhem to many, but this is something to not to fool around with. Would the knowledge of knowing that this Pit-forsaken planet is ancient Earth work?"

Eletron made short work with removing a few of the more non-vital parts from the pod before covering up the pod once more. With the parts in one hand and a sizable rock in the other, Eletron walked back to the Predicon.

"That better be the truth, Spider-bot." Eletron held up the rock wielding hand and clutched it to the point that it started to have several stress induced cracks all around the surface area before she dropped the item, hearing it break apart into many pieces as it made impact onto the ground.

The Predicon gulped quietly and nodded his head. "If anything happens, I better have a hiding spot in the darkest part of the Pit."

Eletron glared at the Predicon with anger and concern before handing over the parts she had extracted from the pod.

"You're a psychopath."

"I prefer creative." Tarantulas snickered as he reverted to his transmetal arachnid form.

Before he could speed off, Eletron placed a heavy foot onto his torso.

"If I find that other Predicons are going to pay a visit..." Eletron placed her double blades within millimeters of his optics. "...even if you didn't tell anyone, I'm going to play _'I'll Slag Him, I'll Slag Him Not'_ , starting with your multiple arachnid appendages. Is that clear?"

Tarantulas once again attempted to not audibly gulp.

"Clear as a crystal energon blade."

"It had better be." Eletron uttered with a scowl before removing her foot. "Now, get out of here before I forget to let you go in one piece."

As the Predicon sped away as fast as his wheels would let him, Eletron placed her blades back in sub-space and reverted to to beast mode. Turning her attention back to the young elephant, she motioned with her trunk towards the herd.

"Go on, young one. Back to the herd with you." Eletron nodded her head towards the herd. "Your family is waiting."

As the youth went back to his herd, the herd met him half way, running their trunks over his body to make sure he was okay. Eletron kept her distance and gave a wan smile. Her herd was safe. _Her_ herd. Even if they didn't accept her into the tight knit group, the herd would always be the one she stayed with. After a while, Eletron made to turn and leave when she was stopped by a low rumbling sound - much calmer than what she had heard earlier. Curiously looking over her shoulder, Eletron saw the lead elephant of the herd walk towards her.

 _What in the world?_ Eletron turned to face the matriarch. "Chaitanya? What are-"

The matriarch lightly bumped heads with the Maximal before running her trunk over Eletron's shoulders and back. Continued low rumbles grew in numbers as several more members of the herd surrounded the two. Suddenly it occurred to Eletron what was going on. Eletron gave a small smile as she intertwined her trunk with the matriarch's. Their eyes met and stayed in constant contact & she knew. This herd was where she belonged, regardless if she joined into the Beast Wars.


	3. Chapter 2

**Tarantulas' Log**  
Supplemental

 _It may not have been much, but the spare parts that I've obtained from that pachyderm Maximal proved useful. It's curious though, why hadn't she, much less her stasis pod, been picked up by our sensors. From the sound of things, not even the Maximals know of her existence... yet._

 _It makes one wonder if the Maximals were to find out about her location, would she give them as warm of a greeting as she gave me? I did promise not to tell my fellow Predicons of her location nor of her very existence. *chortle* I never gave the same promise concerning the Maximals._

* * *

"It makes a bot wonder, don't it?" Rattrap maintained a steady speed for Rhinox to keep up at. "Why would Ol' Spider Legs give us the location of a possible new Maximal? Somethin' stinks about his message and his higher-than-average dodginess in giving details."

"Mm-hmm." Rhinox agreed with Rattrap's comment. "Let's just hope there was some modicum of truth in his message."

"Yeah... I still can't help feeling that it's a trap, though. It isn't so much as what he's told us, it's what he didn't mention. Why would he just willingly give up on a stasis pod?"

"Hmm." Rhinox had wondered about that as well. If Tarantulas couldn't have retrieved the stasis pod because of the resulting new Maximal protecting it from him, then what could, or rather would, the Maximal do to its unknown comrades?

"Here we go..." Eletron was in her robot form behind one of the younger herd members that was having a hard time getting out of the opposite side of a nearby river that had an embankment that was a little too high for the younger elephant to get over. The young one's mother was helping from the front end with wrapping her trunk around one of her child's front legs. With cooperation, Eletron and the mother elephant was able to get the young one out and onto solid ground.

"Stay on solid ground for a good long while, would you?" Eletron sat down on the embankment with a sigh of relief. "I can't always be here to help you get stuck."

Ever since her encounter with Tarantulas, Eletron occasionally replayed the incident in her mind and wondered if the slagging Predicon would keep his word to not inform other Predicons of her very existence. Shaking her head, she once again filed that thought away. It had been several solar cycles since then and there were no signs of trouble. After a few more nano-cycles, Eletron stood and reverted to her beast form.

Relative silence had set around the herd outside of a few distant bird calls and a few of the herd members confirming for themselves that the mother and child were all right. The matriarch of the herd - the one that Eletron had personally named Chaitanya - headed straight to the Maximal after having her turn to check on the young elephant. Butting heads and gently touching Eletron's neck in a form of thanks, Chaitanya let out a nearly silent rumble in communication. The touching moment was interrupted by an uneasy feeling followed with a slight vibration that seemed to slowly and steadily get bigger as if something was coming closer to the herd.

Whatever or whoever was the cause of the vibration didn't seem - much less began to sound - natural. At least not half natural. Eletron was beginning to differentiate two distinct vibrating sounds - one which felt like some heavy quadruped at top speed, the other mechanical. This led to only one conclusion to Eletron.

"Predicons. I should have known he was a liar."

Eletron took a few steps backward to be closer to the herd while staying on constant alert. As the two newcomers came within range, several elephants in the herd began to lowly trumpet their concern. The rhinoceros they could handle. The freaky robotic looking rat on the other hand? That just wasn't right. Not that Eletron completely understood why the herd had an aversion to rodents, but if the herd had a problem, then Eletron had a problem. As most of the herd stepped a bit further away from the newcomers, Eletron stood her ground.

Slowing to a halt, the rhinoceros looked around while his companion switched from his wheeled mode to his transmetal rat feet.

"Well?"

"The scanners say the new Maximal is here, but since Tarantulas didn't give..." the conversation was stopped abruptly as Eletron trumpeted and used her trunk to raise the smaller newcomer by his neck.

"I knew I couldn't trust that Predicon to keep his auditory circuits muted. This time I'm not giving you Predicons a chance to return in one piece!"

Eletron placed the transmetal rodent at the tip of one of her tusks and applied a bit of pressure.

"Wh-woah! I ain't no stinkin' Pred!" Rattrap rasped in disgust while attempting to free his neck from the pachyderm's trunk.

"Drop him." Eletron's attention was torn between throttling Rattrap and getting a good look at Rhinox. Rhinox waited for several more tense nano-kliks before adding, "I know he doesn't have the most trustworthy of faces..."

"Hey!" Rattrap rasped as he continued to struggle.

Rhinox continued as if Rattrap didn't interupt. "...but I promise we are not Predicons. Please, just drop him."

That had taken her aback. Something about this Maximal just seemed to have an effect on her. No doubt that she could probably throw him a lot further than she could trust him, but Eletron released Rattrap as if he was the most disgusting thing imaginable. Rattrap fell onto his back and awkwardly rolled upright. The fact that the bigger newcomer had not switched modes and attacked gave her more to think about and process. Eletron wanted to know what was going on, but since Rattrap's presence affected the herd's piece of mind, she started shooing them away.

"Meet me down the river around the outcrop of boulders. I need to calm my herd before we can talk." The last part was directed mostly towards Rhinox, but she kept an eye on Rattrap. Abruptly turning, Eletron left the two befuddled Maximals.

"Let's go." Rhinox motioned his head in the direction that Eletron mentioned.

"Man... Now I know why Tarantulas sent us out here." Rattrap whined. Shuddering, he added, "Who could blame him? Crazy fem-bot."

"Rattrap!" Rhinox was getting annoyed with Rattrap's gripping as they walked around the river bend.

"Yeah, yeah. I know," Rattrap said with a defeated sigh. Not even needing the phrase said, he knew to shut up or at least to quit complaining. "Well, I probably should get some more scanning done while we wait. Rattrap, maximize!"

Pulling out a portable scanner as soon as he transitioned into robot mode, Rattrap made a quick sweep of the immediate area.

"Yup. The stasis pod's still around here too. I'm surprised that that stinkin' Pred hadn't taken it lock, stock and barrel."

"That's because I made him an offer he couldn't refuse," Eletron stated as she arrived.

"Gah!" Rattrap nearly dropped the scanner as he clutched at his chest plate with his free hand. He hadn't heard the new Maximal arrive right behind him. "What... How... Where..."

"Not very articulate, are you, Pip-squeak?" Eletron eyed the Maximal. "The saying is to speak softly and carry a big stick. In cases like this, the speaking is more of a way of walking and in case you haven't noticed, I practically AM the big stick."

Eletron roughly nudged Rattrap on the back of his head with her trunk. Rhinox gave a nearly imperceptible wry grin.

"Now, some names and explanations are in order. The name's Eletron."

"Rhinox. This is Rattrap." Rhinox replied before Rattrap had the chance to dig himself into a deeper grave.

"Apparently, we were looking for you." Rattrap virtually gritted his gears before grumbling, "though now I wish we didn't."

"Rattrap!" Rhinox's buttons were being pushed to their limits.

"Yeah, yeah. Shut up, Rattrap." The smaller Maximal shook his head and gave a defeated sigh. "Look, we got off on the wrong foot here. Tarantulas was probably expecting us to annihilate each other upon first sight."

Eletron ruminated on the thought for a few moments.

"Eletron, Maximize!"

"Rhinox, Maximize!"

After the bigger Maximals transitioned into their respective robot modes, Eletron folded her arms in front of her chest plate and took a long look at her new companions. Rhinox and Rattrap weren't sure what Eletron was going to do next.

"Let's say for the sake of the moment, that we're on the same side of the... Beast Wars, was it?"

Rhinox nodded in confirmation.

"What took you so long to find me?"

"Look, it's not that we weren't looking, alright? We're a few Maximals short as it is and apparently they haven't been able to make their way in this direction to find you. A lot has been happening lately, what with the Preds constantly making their mark on our defenses and all." It was really hard for Rattrap to keep his cool.

"I'm not sure how long you've been online, but if it's been some time, even before Tarantulas found you... chances are that you and your stasis pod didn't show up on either of the ship's sensors. It was dumb luck that he out of all of the Predicons found you," Rhinox added.

"D'you think the boss monkey'll mind having some extra large company milling around," Rattrap asked Rhinox rhetorically with heavy sarcasm.

"It's all up to you." Rhinox attempted to ignore the diminutive Maximal. "It wouldn't be a bad thing to know who your fellow Maximals are so that our first contact won't have to be repeated. Besides, as soon as you meet the rest of us, you could come right back here."

"You... Have a point." Eletron sighed in concession. "I'm going to need a few cycles to let my herd know I'll be gone a while."

"Okay." Rhinox nodded with some understanding before all three Maximals reverted to their respective beast modes and Eletron walked away.

Rattrap opened his mouth to gripe again but thought better of it with a hard stare from Rhinox.

"Why don't you head back to base and fill everyone in on the situation," Rhinox suggested to Rattrap. _Hopefully, it'll make talking with Eletron easier without him around._

"Yeah, whatever." Rattrap shook his head and transitioned to roady mode. He still couldn't make heads or tails of their new comrade. "Maximum burn!"

As Rattrap raced off, Rhinox went to check on Eletron and her herd.

* * *

Silence permeated the air after Eletron had attempted to explain why she was taking a short trip and promising to be back with the herd as soon as she possibly could. She could only hope that what she said was true and that the herd had understood her words, if not her intentions.

A calm low rumble from one of the elephants alerted Eletron to Rhinox's approach. She then realized that Rhinox was alone since the herd wasn't on high alert like they were when Rattrap first showed up.

"Let's go." Eletron swung her trunk to indicate that Rhinox should take the lead.

They didn't get very far when they realized that the herd was actually following them.

"Ho, boy..." Eletron sighed and turned to the herd. "Look, I know I'm a part of this herd, but I'm going somewhere for a bit that is most likely not safe for everybody. Especially the young ones."

The matriarch of the herd, Chaitanya as Eletron named her, stepped forward and touched Eletron's shoulder with her trunk. Chaitanya's low rumble and gentle yet firm glance indicated that they were coming along whether Eletron liked it or not. Eletron wasn't sure what to make of it but sighed while nodding.

"I'm going to _LOVE_ the look on Rattrap's face when we get there." Eletron laughed lightly as she turned and they all headed towards the Maximal base.


End file.
